Michigan Women Take Down Tennessee, Advance To First-Ever Sweet 16

No. 6 seed Michigan women's basketball, led by ninth-year head coach Kim Barnes Arico, took down No. 3 seed Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Tuesday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, 70-55. The Wolverines were 4.5-point underdogs heading in.

Michigan now awaits the winner of No. 2 seed Baylor and No. 7 seed Virginia Tech in the regional semifinals.

The Maize and Blue have advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history after making the round of 32 for just the fifth time. They defeated Florida Gulf Coast by a score of 87-66 in the first round.

Michigan got down 6-2 early in the first quarter but was able to battle back to hold a 14-12 lead at the end of the first stanza. The Wolverines never trailed from there, and dominated the rest of the first half behind stellar defense.

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At the break, the Volunteers shot just 8-of-31 from the field and were 0-of-6 from three-point range. Michigan held Tennessee's top two scorers, Rennia Davis and Rae Burrell, to four points on 2-of-11 shooting in the first half. Davis would finish with 12 points on 4-of-16 from the field. Burrell scored just 11 points on the night.

The Wolverines went on a 5-0 run to take a 28-19 lead into halftime, taking all of the game's momentum with them into the locker room. They came out firing on all cylinders in the third quarter, beginning the period on a 12-2 run to take their largest lead of the game (19 points), 40-21, highlighted by a fifth-year senior guard Akienreh Johnson transition layup.

The Volunteers were able to cut it to 50-35 at the end of the third quarter. Michigan then managed to keep the lead in double-digits for most of the fourth quarter. T

The Volunteers trimmed the deficit to nine points with 36 seconds to go while playing the foul game late, but that was as close as it got. Michigan hit 11 of its 14 attempts from the charity stripe to close things out.

Michigan was led by junior guard/forward Leigha Brown, a Nebraska transfer, who scored 21 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field and added five assists and three rebounds. Junior All-American forward Naz Hillmon, the Big Ten Player of the Year, dropped 19 points and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds. Senior forward Hailey Brown chipped in 14 points and two rebounds, while splashing four of her six attempts from three-point land.

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